Smart One

[DarkoB]

New small drawing for one very small jet: Smart-1
This mini aircraft is version of Bede BD-5J microjet homemade aircraft.
The aircraft is certified by the United States Department of Defense as a cruise missile surrogate. More to find here SMART-1
Smart-1 is one of the smallest aircraft in the World, its length is only 3,66 meters, or 12 feet.
Drawing is in the very early stage, with only texture and the few shadows applied.

[DarkoB]

Smart One with some colors on it.

[Supah]

Wow! What is the range on these puppies? I doubt you have much room for fuel in such a small airframe.

[Supah]

Econ cruis speed is 160 knots, range is 325 nm, so it has about fuel for roughly 2 hours of flight. Take into account take, climb and a landing pattern and that is about 1,5 to 1,75 hours. Reasonable, though I doubt many people would use it for overland flights and would just play about near their home airport. I mean, it's not like you are going to be able to take a bag with you or anything?

[DarkoB]

Supah, thank you for this well detailed informations.
I am almost sure they can significantly extend radius if they attach one 3-gallon external tank below the belly

It is also interesting that any pilot with US shoe size greater than 11 (or 45 in euro) is not allowed to fly this plane

Anyway, here is nearly finished profile, waiting for some shadows and details here and there. Sadly, most of the small details were lost in jpeg conversion.

I hope you all like it so far, and if you have any comments or critics...

[Slammer]

Did James Bond not use one of these?

[inkworm]

Only negative I can see is the camo pattern doesn't look smooth enough, it should curve and flow more, clean up the edges and it'll be fine.

And it was in Octopussy, time to do that scheme now!

[BLOWHARD]

Looking good Darko! I always liked this one!
One thing you could do is add the shadow under the rocket fairing and get rid of the perimeter shadow around the trailing edge of the fuselage. Take a look at your photo, the vertical trailing edge of fuselage. it ends in a very sharp airfoil section and the rocket fairing is rounded and should have a shadow blending in to that shape.

[DarkoB]

Thank you all for your helpful advices.

And thanks for reminding me of the movie Octopussy, the first movie I've seen in the cinema. Seven years old, popcorns, 007... Oh, dear...

Here is what I think the finished profile of Smart-1, and if you have any comments, I would be glad to hear them.

And as the special guest tonight, on Her Majesty's service, according to your wish:
The beginning of the 007's BD-5J, or Acrostar as you liked.
There are still a lot of work, with lot of differences in the panels, rivets, intakes...

If anyone is interested here is the intro scene from Octopussy Flying Bulls Bede BD-5J Microjet - Hangar-7

[BLOWHARD]

Looking really good!